Quoth the Window, "Nevermore."

There is a bird outside our window who has an urgent message to share. Clearly, that’s it. Because why, otherwise, would a bird work so hard to get into my house?
That’s what I began to think as day after day passed with this incredibly beautiful bird throwing itself against the window again and again. I’ve never seen anything like it. The bird is a cardinal, I think. This in itself is a curiosity because we never see this type of bird around here. They’re more of a eastern U.S. phenomenon.
The bird has bright red feathers from its chest to its tail and a bright yellow beak. When he spreads his wings to fly he explodes into color. This is a sight I am frequently privy to as the bird spends many hours of every day perched on a branch just outside the window and regularly opens those wings to fly right at the glass, banging against it with its beak, wings, and chest again and again. When he tires he rests on the branch for a while and then he starts all over again.
What does he want?
I remember my ancient Middle East studies….Egypt. The bird icon represents the (ca or ba?) soul of the deceased. And I always have a foot in that spirit place so I can’t help but ask…is it a messenger? Is this bird trying to tell us something…warn us, prepare us, come inside and be with us? Does some lingering memory of a previous life abide within it and remind it that this is a place it once ate and drank and laughed and cried?
I also know it is spring…ahhh, spring. When a young man’s fancy turns to….you get the point, right? And maybe this bird’s fancy has turned to that, too. But being a rare breed in these parts, it has had difficulty finding a mate and thinks the one reflected in my window is looking pretty good. In which case, frustration levels must be running high about now.
Is it a pet bird someone lost and it thinks it’s home? Is it trying to get back inside where it’s safe?
I went outside and looked at the window from the bird’s point of view. Perspective is everything, right? The reflection creates the illusion of another tree. We all know the grass is always greener. Maybe the leaves are, too? In which case, this animal is demonstrating a most basic principle of insanity…to keep doing the same thing over and over hoping for different results.
Perhaps the most interesting feature of this event is the cat’s reaction. She sits on the rocker by the window praying for the day the bird breaks through. Does she sense that fresh meat is just a ¼ inch pane of glass away?
Whatever. I’m spending way too much time and brain-space on this.
My efforts at discerning the bird’s intentions are beginning to take on a trajectory paralleling the bird’s actions. Tragedy in futility. Or futility in tragedy.
Give it up.
Sometimes a bird is just a bird.